Muscovy ducks- week 3

The ducklings are growing fast and well. Still no sign of catching flies on their own. Donna has taken a big step  in going for the fly when we feed it to her. Davey and Debbie are still rather timid.

Mother Elvis gets very upset when i pick up the ducklings to pet as they make crying sounds to their mum.

Davey is the furtherest away (with a stripe across its eye), Donna is grooming herself and Debbie is on the right

Debbie

how could something so cute grow into something so ugly??

Duckling Donna

Baby Donna is out of her incubator now. we've let her get strong 1st before letting her join her siblings. Donna is very timid and always hiding under her lamp.it's hard to get a picture of her.

2 new Muscovy duckling hatched!!

Elvis had been clucky and Craig went to got some Muscovy duck eggs for her to sit on so she can be a proud mum and we can have some fly eating ducks.

Well, how did that turn out? Elvis is a very noisy mum and the duckling do not chase flies on their own to eat!! they are quite happy to be fed flies. Slackers!

We think these 2 ducklings were hatched some time around 11th to 12th. can't really tell the exact date as she's under Elvis, all we can hear is chirps.

here's pictures of proud mum and her kids

i've named this one Davey. Davey has a pretty strip across it's eye. And the other one is called Debbie, which i can't get a picture of due to fat mum.

Gosling's snoring !!

Yes!! Zack and Zeva snores when they sleep!! it sound like a duck. turn your speakers up for this and be amazed!! Look how big they have grown as well. These gosling are 5 weeks old this week.

Zara, Zack and Zeva 1st bath

We let the gosling into the bath today and they are unsure of the water to start with but soon relax once we give them some lettuce (yes we are grooming the next bath of lettuce monsters!!)

Zara cleaning herself

Zack in the middle...gosling are fed lettuce to calm them down

Zeva diving for more lettuce

Looks like the gosling had a good bath

Zack cleaning himself

Baby Zara loves to chew

3 days after Zara is born she has started to show signs of loving to chew things.....in this case my finger.
She's very active too.

New Gosling is born!

One of the three goose eggs we had incubate hatched today!

And we named her Zara :)

the remaining 2 did not hatch so Zara is alone for the 1st 3 weeks. Good that she can hear Zena and Zoey around.

Duckling Big Day Out & Chooks Big Day In

The ducklings are on the way to destroy their lovely paper home with their messy eating and drinking. So Craig had decided out they go. There a little bit of poultry movement required. We had to move all the younger chooks into the pen and move the ducklings into the coop.

so in went the chooks, ready to brave Feisty, Timid and Sickie(not so timid and sick anymore.....we have renamed them to Nasty Pasty 1 and 2 ). They will have to learn to share the food, water and sleep together in the new home Craig had built.

And in went the ducklings! they seem to love the open air and sunlight. I have them a small bath and yes, messy as usual. Some ducklings were eventually falling into the bath and having a mini splash.

drinking from their bath

oh, did I mentioned we have 12 ducklings???

and only one brave one to start using the bath??

 Overall, They seems happy with their new home :)

Ducklings Hatch Day 2

Day 2 and more ducklings hatched! When we checked this morning, 1 more were hatched during the
night!

you still need to stretch when you are sleeping ;)

The older ducklings are now yellow and fluffy and getting familar with their new home.They started eating, drinking and making a stinky mess as well!

During the day, 4 more hatched during the day!! We have 11 cute ducklings now. Can't resist cuddling and petting them....

one big family

And there's more to come!

Chicks are 5 weeks old!!!

Our 7 chicks are growing fast and quick. They are consuming their food quickly and has taken a LOVE to bread.

We also had a few busybody chicks, always wanting to know what's out there!

Craig had put in a new perch for them and the chickies are showing their gratitude quick!

You can see Stripy standing up and Little sitting down. Little couldn't sit on the perch because of its feet.

Presenting some of the noisy buggers!

 One white with black feathers with no comb

This might be a part bantam. it has feathers on its feet. It has the best hairstyle among the 7 of them and I called it Elvis.

Stripy is now bigger as well and its watermelon body is over taken by its feathers. You can still see the stripe on its eye.

Little was the one born 2 days little, at week 3 we discover it's feet is deformed. Little can't sit on a perch so it's always sleeping alone, laying down. 

Today, we bought saw dust for the chicks because they keep eating their own poo and it stinks! They loved the saw dust once we put it in. It's soft on their feet and 2 white chicks start dusting themselves madly!

dusting themselves

When Chicks sleep.......

They look so innocent and adorable!! :)

The gang sleeps together....

sniffing one's bottom while sleeping....

sleeping on one another...